Emma Velásquez, a 34-year-old Venezuelan, performed cosmetic surgeries for months, charging her clients between $30 and $250 per procedure. For this, she did not have a medical license. She learned the trade by watching videos of YouTube y Facebookas he confessed to the police.
His arrest occurred last week in Barcelona, Anzoátegui state, in eastern Venezuela. His practices put the health of dozens of people at risk, to whom he enlarged lips, injected platelet-rich plasma or applied microdermabrasion, said the head of the scientific police, Douglas Rico.
The Ministry of Health has a department that must check these credentials
Policemen pretended to be clients interested in their beauty services by sending messages to their email account. Instagram, By Emma Velásquez, until an appointment is made. Upon arrival at the site, they confirmed that he had no medical endorsements.
Velásquez, who had an open police record since 2004 as a missing person, had dozens of syringes and test tubes in his office, as well as numerous equipment and items for aesthetic treatments.
Velásquez’s is added to dozens of cases reported this year in Venezuela of false doctors with null or fictitious credentials.
A month ago, the scientific police reported another arrest in Caracas of a 26-year-old woman who performed illegal work in invasive medicine and dermocosmia for at least six months in her office, the “KGMC Centro Estético.”
Imposter doctor scandals go beyond aesthetics. José López, 38, posed as a surgeon and gynecologist in health centers in Aragua state, in the center of the country, where he placed intradermal lollipop sticks as a supposed contraceptive method, police said.
In Zulia, the most populous region of Venezuela, Mauricio Monroy, 29, worked as an anesthesiology resident doctor at the University Hospital of Maracaibo. He did it by forging a college degree, authorities said.
It is the lack of supervision and sanction
The scientific police arrested him in May in one of the operating rooms of that care center, the most relevant of the state health system in the city.
Also, it became known in May of the arrest in western Caracas of an alleged 46-year-old surgeon specializing in homeopathy, who illegally practiced medicine for 20 years thanks to a forged university degree.
An investigation by the newspaper El Pitazo reflected that the Venezuelan police arrested 21 fake doctors in the country between January and May of this year. The arrests occurred in the Andes, the west, the Llanos and the center of the nation.
Inefficient controls
The Ministry of Popular Power for Health of the government presided over by Nicolás Maduro is the main responsible and the first filter to prevent illegal medicine practices, emphasizes Huníades Urbina, academic secretary of the National Academy of Medicine and an intensivist pediatrician with extensive experience.
“The Ministry of Health has a department that must check these credentials (of all doctors in the country). They assign us a license plate”, among other documents that certify their studies, he tells the Voice of America.
A second step in the chain of control lies in the human resources departments of public and private health centers, he points out.
The case of those who illegally practice medicine in private practices is already beyond ministerial jurisdiction, he indicates. The proliferation of fake doctors in Venezuela has its origin in greed, believes the specialist.
“These criminals see the opportunity to earn money by threatening the life and health of patients. They see how much is charged for a consultation, they put on a medical gown and do any nonsense, ”she warns.
Venezuela has been experiencing an acute economic crisis for nine years, in which there was a hyperinflationary process for more than 48 continuous months and the devaluation of the national currency pulverized the citizen’s purchasing power.
Urbina believes that the arrested criminals take advantage of “the great credibility” that Venezuelan doctors have as a “way to earn easy money.” The recent increase in complaints is due to patients noticing the impostor’s lack of expertise, not receiving adequate treatment and coming forward, she says.
A medical source with more than two decades of experience in the field of cardiovascular surgery in Venezuela also pointed to the lack of controls.
“The evaluation of credentials goes through the authorities and institutions of the Ministry of Health”, certifies the VOAunder condition of anonymity.
The doctor, who recently shared operating rooms with one of the dozens of doctors with false credentials, cites examples of strict controls to practice as a health practitioner, in countries like the United States.
“Not only is it enough to carry documents and supports. Whoever aspires to belong to a clinical center or a group of traumatologists, for example, must go to the FBI and to the DEA (government anti-drug directorate) to confirm records, verify their records, and be authorized to issue prescriptions,” he says.
The source insists that other state agencies and civil society, such as the Ministry of Education, the College of Physicians of each region in Venezuela, the national identification system and even embassies must be involved in the application of controls and verification of credentials. of local medicine.
The Law on the Practice of Medicine in the South American country attributes to medical colleges competencies less aimed at credential certifications, but more attached to ensuring that ethical standards are met.
Its article 56 calls them to “cooperate with official agencies in monitoring compliance with legal standards” of the practice of medicine, but the duty to ensure authorizations to practice medicine falls on the State.
The Venezuelan government has not ruled on the cases of illegal medical practices, while unions in the sector denounce that there are precarious conditions for caring for patients in healthcare centers.
“No one supervises”
The lack of values and ethical and moral training among Venezuelans is the genesis of the criminal practices of medicine, according to Freddy Pachano, a pediatrician and head of postgraduate studies at the Faculty of Medicine of the centenary University of Zulia, in the west of the country.
“It must be an axis in both secondary and university education in all careers. But, in medicine, (the primary responsibility) is the lack of power and action of the regulatory entities ”of the State, he comments in an interview.
The role of the medical union, represented in the regional sections of his school, is also vital, he believes. He also assures that “there are no clear laws” in Venezuela on the review and certification of medical credentials.
“We (at LUZ) have requested the mandatory certification and recertification from time to time, in a mandatory way, of professionals in the health areas, but this is not supported since it is worth studying and having the possibility of being disapproved and not being able to exercise”, he warns the VOA.
Pachano affirms that no state entity or private and public health center demands the updating of medical studies. “It’s a serious problem,” he says.
In Venezuela, “no one supervises who practices” and even the practice of medicine is allowed “without authorization from the Medical Associations,” he denounces.
He also recalls that the Venezuelan government promoted modifications to the Law on the Practice of Medicine to include the so-called comprehensive community doctors. Chavismo promoted a six-year training program to address preventive medicine and primary health care, in coordination with the Cuban Medical Mission and two Venezuelan ministries.
“In the game between the doctors formed by the government for political purposes and those formed by the autonomous universities, there is no adequate law,” says Pachano, who considers the reform of the law to be “a tremendous mistake.”
In his opinion, the “complex issue” of medical practice without major controls must be overcome with a joint operation between the State and the health union.
For him, there is only one reason for the proliferation of fake doctors in the South American nation in recent times: “the lack of supervision and sanction.”
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